The purpose of this study was to investigate secondary instrumental music education in rural Mississippi. This descriptive study investigated the experiences, attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions that rural instrumental music educators ("N" = 58) held about their schools, students, and communities. Furthermore, we examined how…

If leaders want to support and retain--not just hire--Black educators, they must understand what it means to be a Black educator now. El-Mekki, a veteran educator and founder of the Center for Black Educator Development, shares realities Black teachers face, from the fact that schools don't always feel safe to them to the responsibility they feel…

The COVID-19 pandemic, recent awakening of society to its enduring racial pandemic, rising expectations for employer accountability, and an increasingly diverse populace jointly indicate that times are changing for the future of education work. Yet the approach to human resource management (HRM) employed in schools has been criticized for being…

This article describes a National Science Foundation-funded project that engages graduate students in the active development of context-specific codes-of-ethics based guidelines for use in their research group. By actively engaging students in ethics discussions specific to their everyday practice, this approach has the benefit of situating ethics…

Tough teaching conditions affect us. But they don't define us, says teacher Chase Mielke, author of The Burnout Cure (ASCD, 2019). In this heartfelt letter to new teachers, Mielke shares five "Passion Stokers" to keep the teaching fire alive. Some of these he learned from research in positive psychology. Others he learned the hard way,…

New research has identified teacher working conditions as having a greater effect on teacher turnover than most other factors, including student achievement and student characteristics. Importantly, research has debunked the conventional wisdom that teachers often leave schools because of student characteristics. This brief discusses how teacher…

The report of the MLA Task Force on Ethical Conduct in Graduate Education calls on administrators, departments, and faculty members to embrace "student-centered graduate education informed by an ethics of care." To confront long-standing issues in graduate education--such as precarity, bias and favoritism, harassment, mental health,…

The report of the MLA Task Force on Ethical Conduct in Graduate Education calls on administrators, departments, and faculty members to embrace "student-centered graduate education informed by an ethics of care." To confront long-standing issues in graduate education--such as precarity, bias and favoritism, harassment, mental health,…

In this article, the author considers the ways racial and gender oppression uniquely impact the experiences of women faculty of color working at Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs). HSIs are federally defined as accredited, not-for-profit two- or four-year institutions of higher learning whose total full-time student enrollment is at least 25…

The continuum of bad behavior within the academy, from incivility to aggressive bullying, is analyzed using examples that occurred over a two-decade career. The author posits that the cases, which involved both faculty and students, were significantly impacted by the participants' gender and race positionalities.

This article shares how the author explained her trans status to her students. Everyone has been extremely supportive of her decision to come out in class and to completely mask the male secondary-sex characteristics, especially in the workplace. The department chair and the faculty in general have been willing to do whatever they can to assist…

Students often view their course grades as a mysterious equation of teacher-given grades, teacher-given grace, and some other ethereal components based on luck. However, giving students the power to earn points based on numerous daily/weekly assignments and attendance makes the grading process objective and personal, freeing the instructor to…

The nature of the American academic workforce has fundamentally shifted over the past several decades. Whereas full-time tenured and tenure-track faculty were once the norm, more than two-thirds of the professoriate in non-profit postsecondary education is now comprised of non-tenure-track faculty. New hires across all institutional types are now…

In these troubled times rife with examples of corporate, institutional, and personal misbehavior, it is sometimes difficult to determine just what is an ethical response. With headlines disclosing college and university recruiting violations in athletics, researchers intentionally publishing erroneous or misleading results, presidents and other…

This report integrates 2009-2010 AISD campus, central office, student climate survey and parent survey responses that address cultural competency in the district. Longitudinal data are provided when available.